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| SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Giants will partner once again to bring opera to the ballpark at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20, 2008 with a FREE live simulcast of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor starring international opera sensation Natalie Dessay. Nearly 15,000 music lovers attended the first Opera at the Ballpark experience on September 28, 2007, and a large crowd is expected to turn out once again to experience glorious music in one of San Francisco's most beautiful locations. Online registration for the Lucia di Lammermoor simulcast begins May 1 at sfopera.com/giants. Traditional baseball game concessions will also be available, providing audiences the rare opportunity to partner hot dogs, peanuts and popcorn with world-class opera. Baseball fans and opera fans will have a chance to experience this FREE event with seating both on the field and in the stands. Advance registration gives you early entrance into the ballpark for the best seating on June 20 and enters you into a special prize drawing. Through state-of-the-art technology, the simulcast will be transmitted in 1920x1080 high definition (HD) via fiber and satellite to AT&T Park's 103-feet wide Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision scoreboard-the highest quality outdoor scoreboard in the nation-live from the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. In the theater, a multi-camera shoot will be directed by Frank Zamacona, director of the Company's simulcasts of Samson and Delilah (September 2007) Don Giovanni (June 2007) and Rigoletto (October 2006), using the Company's new Koret-Taube Media Suite. The suite utilizes Sony cameras and Cambotics robotics, operated by robotic camera operators using remote-control technology. Concert quality audio combined with AT&T Park's huge screen will create an unmatched operatic experience for attendees sitting in the stands and on the baseball field itself. "All of us at the Giants are thrilled to welcome back our friends at the San Francisco Opera for another night of opera at the ballpark," stated Giants Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Baer. "Bringing some of the world's most beautiful voices together with the nation's most beautiful ballpark was clearly a winning combination, and we are delighted to offer a repeat performance." "We are so grateful to our friends at the San Francisco Giants for helping us bring the magnificent sights and sounds of San Francisco Opera to a huge crowd of baseball fans and music lovers alike," said San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley. "Our last experience at AT&T Park was magical in an 'only in San Francisco' sort of way-from the children running the bases and couples posing for photos on home plate, to the diverse crowds huddled under blankets eating hot dogs in the stands. All of us at San Francisco Opera are thrilled to be able to offer our community this free gift." Free live simulcasts are among the first innovations of David Gockley's new tenure and part of the Company's campaign to bring opera into the community and to wider audiences. San Francisco Opera has presented four free live simulcasts: Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah at AT&T Park to a crowd of nearly 15,000 on September 28, 2007; a June 22, 2007 live simulcast of Mozart's Don Giovanni to capacity crowds at four venues (San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis, and the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa); Verdi's Rigoletto on October 6, 2006 presented to an audience of approximately 14,000 at Civic Center Plaza and Frost Amphitheatre at Stanford University; and the first, a simulcast of Puccini's Madama Butterfly on May 27, 2006, drawing 8,000 people to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza. San Francisco Opera simulcasts are made possible by the Company's Koret-Taube Media Suite, a high-definition video production facility installed on the fifth floor of the War Memorial Opera House. The media suite is the first permanent HD broadcast-standard facility installed in an American opera house. A grant from the Koret Foundation provided lead funding for the Koret-Taube Media Suite, with additional support provided by Tad and Dianne Taube. San Francisco Opera is able to present Opera at the Ballpark as a free community event through the generosity of many sponsors. This simulcast is supported by The Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant and by Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. Company Sponsor Mrs. Edmund W. Littlefield is proud to support this production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Equipment for this simulcast is made possible through exciting partnerships with Sony, Meyer Sound and Dolby Laboratories. The San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com, CBS 5, the CW Bay Area and Classical 102.1 KDFC join with San Francisco Opera as media partners for the Company's 2007-2008 Season Community Events. San Francisco Opera is supported by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund. LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR - Gaetano Donizetti San Francisco Opera presents Gaetano Donizetti's famed saga of a woman driven mad by her arranged marriage in a striking production by Paul Brown where elements of nature echo the drama's tragedy. Making her Company debut in the title role is celebrated French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay, whose vocal agility and dramatic charisma have established her as one of the role's foremost interpreters. Tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, whose Metropolitan Opera debut as Lucia's true love Edgardo was hailed as "sensational" by Opera News, makes his San Francisco Opera debut in the same role. The production also features baritone Gabriele Viviani in his Company debut as Enrico Ashton, bass and Merola alumnus Oren Gradus as Raimondo, former Adler Fellow tenor Matthew O'Neill (Normanno), and soprano Heidi Melton (Alisa) and tenor Andrew Bidlack (Arturo), both current Adler Fellows. Internationally celebrated opera director Graham Vick, who made his Company debut with Tannhäuser earlier this season, directs the Teatro del Maggio Musicale production, which also marks the Company debut of French conductor Jean-Yves Ossonce. |